Harry Wayne Casey – KC of KC and The Sunshine Band – did more than do a little dance and get down tonight during his band’s headline show at Musikfest Steel Stage.

Casey took issue with a prediction Lehigh Valley Music made about attendance at his show back in May, then gave our blog a, uh, salute from stage.

KC with dancers at Steel Stage on ThursdayPhoto by Chris Post/Special to The Morning Call

After the second song of the night, “Boogie Shoes,” Casey took an interlude during which he talked for a five minutes – mostly telling jokes about how he has aged and gained weight.

Then he thanked the crowd for coming, saying that when the show was announced, “your local blogger predicted no one would show up.”

“And here’s what I want to tell that blogger,” Casey said, as he performed the Bras d'honneur or “Italian salute,” bending his right arm into an L-shape, with the closed palm pointing upward, while using the other hand to grip his bicep.

“Give him a piece of my mind,” Casey said.

Here’s what Lehigh Valley Music actually said back on May 19, three days after the KC and the Sunshine Band show was announced:

“I joked that my headline should be ‘Musikfest at 30 is headlined by a band that hasn’t had a hit in its lifetime.’ Unfortunately, that’s true. And KC’s voice, never the best, is shot. Even the appeal of a fun summer evening won’t save this one. Prediction: It just may set the record for the lowest paid turnout in Musikfest history (1,891 by Kool & The Gang in 2008).”

Turns out that, after several discount sales and other promotions, KC and The Sunshine Band drew 2,231 people to Thursday’s concert. That’s a whopping 340 people above setting the record for the lowest paid attendance in Musikfest history.

Congratulations, KC.

The show still was the worst attended of all this year’s Musikfest shows – and only about a third of the sellout of 6,300 who attended the sold-out show by 1970s rockers Styx and Foreigner on Wednesday.

But hey, Lehigh Valley Music gave its opinion on KC in its forum, and KC now has given his opinion of us in his forum.

For KC to address criticism from the stage gives it validity. Two large blocks of 50+ tickets were "sold" some time between 10 am and 3 pm in the grandstand section yesterday. I have screenshots to prove it. I think it was a face saving move by someone. I wonder who was gifted those tickets or if anyone was even sitting there at all. I think the criticism is warranted. Let's book talent worthy of the big stage next year.

Posted By: Dave | Aug 9, 2013 9:50:09 AM

Sour grapes from another washed-up Fest act.

Third rate talent at 1st rate prices. Musikfest has officially jumped the shark.

Posted By: Steve-2304 | Aug 9, 2013 10:00:35 AM

I had a great time... :)

Posted By: Janice | Aug 9, 2013 11:09:05 AM

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JOHN J. MOSER has been around long enough to have seen the original Ramones in a small club in New Jersey, U2 from the fourth row of a theater and Bob Dylan's born-again tours. But he also has the number for All-American Rejects' Nick Wheeler on his cell phone, wrote the first story ever done on Jack's Mannequin and hung out in Wiz Khalifa's hotel room.

OTHER CONTRIBUTORS

JODI DUCKETT: As The Morning Call's assistant features editor responsible for entertainment, she spends a lot of time surveying the music landscape and sizing up the Valley's festivals and club scene. She's no expert, but enjoys it all — especially artists who resonated in her younger years, such as Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Tracy Chapman, Santana and Joni Mitchell.

KATHY LAUER-WILLIAMS enjoys all types of music, from roots rock and folk to classical and opera. Music has been a constant backdrop to her life since she first sat on the steps listening to her mother’s Broadway LPs when she was 2. Since becoming a mother herself, she has become well-versed on the growing genre of kindie rock and, with her son in tow, can boast she has seen a majority of the current kid’s performers from Dan Zanes to They Might Be Giants.

STEPHANIE SIGAFOOS: A Jersey native raised in Northeast PA, she was reared in a house littered with 8-tracks, 45s and cassette tapes of The Beatles, Elvis, Meatloaf and Billy Joel. She also grew up on the sounds of Reba McEntire, Garth Brooks and Tim McGraw and can be found traversing the countryside in search of the sounds of a steel guitar. A fan of today's 'new country,' she digs mainstream/country-pop crossovers like Lady Antebellum and Sugarland and other artists that illustrate the genre's diversity.